Dr Michael R Davis
Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology
Department of Psychiatry, Monash University
Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne
Rapists and their offences are markedly heterogenous. As such, a variety of typological systems have been developed to assist forensic mental health professionals and behavioural investigative advisers in differentiating the motives and behaviour of sexual offenders. Traditional typologies routinely described four primary forms of offence behaviour. However, with the publication of the MTC:R3 typology (1990) several new variants were described, including the “vindictive rapist.” This was initially conceptualised as a misogynistic variant of the pervasively angry rapist, whereby gratuitous physical and sexual violence was directed solely at women. Both types were thought to have little in the way of planning, premeditation, or paraphilic sexual interests. However, subsequent research indicated that some vindictive rapists’ offences often involved a degree of premeditation and even some paraphilic elements. Indeed, some authors have posited that the vindictive rapist is actually more like the overt sexual sadist than the pervasively angry type. This paper will provide an overview of the various disparate research findings and propose a reconceptualisation of the construct. It will be argued that the offences of vindictive rapists can be properly viewed on a continuum from the predominantly angry to the partially ritualistic. Case studies will be used to describe the differences within this continuum whilst highlighting the importance of misogyny. The addition of this new conceptualisation to a pragmatic meta-model of rapist behaviour will be described with recommendations for differentiating the vindictive rapist from other motivations. Future directions for research and practice will also be outlined.
Dr Michael Davis is a Forensic and Clinical Psychologist in full time private practice and the National Chair of the APS College of Forensic Psychologists. He has adjunct appointments at Swinburne, Monash, and Melbourne Universities. He has presented nationally and internationally on the topics of sexual deviance, risk assessment, psychopathy, offender profiling, equivocal death, behavioural crime linkage, and other aspects of sexual and violent crime. He has conducted hundreds of assessments for the courts and in consultation for area mental health services, government departments, and private lawyers. Dr Davis’ consulting practice is divided between forensic clinical assessment tasks and providing behavioural investigative advice to police agencies. He has provided behavioural investigative advice to police in several countries across three continents and is the only mental health professional in Australia to be elected to membership of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship (ICIAF). Dr Davis also serves as an instructor to the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling.